The 23rd UITIC International Congress will run in Jakarta, Indonesia, from 2 to 4 August 2027, under the theme "Engineering the Future of the Footwear Industry". KRISTA Exhibitions and APRISINDO, the Indonesian footwear industry association, will co-organise the event.

UITIC — the International Union of Shoe Industry Technicians — brings together footwear professionals and specialists in manufacturing technology. Its congress last convened in Shanghai in 2025.

The organising body has framed the 2027 programme around three pillars: advanced technologies, sustainable manufacturing and resilience. A stated focus is the growing adoption of new technologies across design and manufacturing processes, ranging from artificial intelligence and intelligent product design to physical AI on the factory floor.

For factory managers and technical directors, the agenda speaks directly to decisions now facing footwear producers in major sourcing countries. Automation and AI adoption in Asian footwear manufacturing have accelerated as brands press suppliers on cost, speed and traceability. The Jakarta programme positions sustainability as a competitive asset rather than a compliance burden, and pairs it with sessions on building agility in a global environment UITIC describes as increasingly complex and unpredictable.

The choice of Indonesia as host country matters for sourcing teams. Indonesia ranks among the largest footwear exporters in the world, and the congress will run alongside two domestic supply-chain trade fairs: ILF, the Indo Leather & Footwear Expo, and IGT, the Indo Garment & Textile Expo. That co-location gives attendees a combined view of the country's materials, components and finished-goods capacity — from tanneries and textile suppliers through to assembly plants.

UITIC has released only parts of the programme so far. Confirmed elements include industry and factory visits, keynote speeches, technical sessions, expert panels and networking events. The Innovation Showcase, a fixture of previous congresses, will return. The organisation says further programme details will be published on its website.

The last congress cycle drew technicians, machinery suppliers and production executives from across the main manufacturing hubs, and the 2027 edition follows the same format of pairing plant-level visits with conference sessions. For sourcing and manufacturing executives, the event offers a single venue for assessing which production technologies — from AI-assisted design to physical automation — are moving from pilot to scale in footwear factories.

The scheduling decision the news forces is straightforward: technical and sourcing teams with Indonesia in their supplier base, or weighing it against Vietnam and China, should hold the first week of August 2027 now and watch the UITIC website for the factory-visit programme, which typically carries the highest practical value for capacity and capability benchmarking.